This is the third of our four reports for the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC project entitled: Innovative Regional Businesses and Options for Economic Growth in Cotton Communities. It has two components. The first documents and analyses the socio-economic profiles for six representative cotton communities derived from surveys of community leaders from local government, small business, and community service organisations. The communities surveyed were Warren, Wee Waa and Moree in New South Wales, and St George, Dalby and Emerald in Queensland. The reasons for their selection were stated in detail in our first report to the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC but, in summary, they differ considerably in their geographical location, population size, significance of cotton in their respective agricultural sectors and the range of alternative economic activities including mining and tourism.Our visits to these communities greatly enhanced the statistical analysis already undertaken for the first report because we were able to gauge:- local leadership dynamics- the extent of communities' strategic focus on the future- respondents' fears and hopes for the future and prospects for resilience- emerging options for future business development- evolving links with other communities and with state governments- the range of services provided and the extent of entrepreneurial innovation- their institutional thickness in the sense of range and contribution of community groups- their degree of social and economic tension or harmony, and demographic trends having a bearing on community sustainability.None of this information is available from such statistical sources as the five-yearly census, but is crucial to understanding the commercial environment in which businesses have to innovate to survive in the longer term. Moreover, we detect and report here subtle, but important, differences between our sample communities on many of these dimensions which, in our view, may well shape small business behaviour. This proposition is currently being tested through a survey of small business across the six locations.The second component of this report stems logically from the first in that it assesses the external forces shaping rural Australia in general, the cotton industry in particular, and the six separate communities under investigation. Medium term forecasting, in which we apply the well-known process of scenario construction, allows us to probe, and interrelate to some degree, the vast range of variables potentially influencing place prosperity and small business behaviours and futures. This knowledge, in turn, enable us to assess the extent to which businesses, individually and collectively, have (i) realistic visions about their future operating environment and (ii) regularly apply those visions in the strategic positioning of their enterprises. A priori reasoning suggests that innovative business will have developed reasoned analyses of their evolving socio-economic milieu. Our current small business survey will help us test this proposition also.Our scenario construction work reported here shows a generally up-beat assessment of rural Australia's medium term future, not least because of the China factor, whose rapid economic growth looms large in our analysis. However, we believe that India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and several other countries are equally part of this equation. Their combined populations of more than 2.5 billion increasingly affluent people are located right on our doorstep, and are a potentially colossal market for much of our agricultural produce. To that we might add Australia's own recent demographic forecasts, which foresee rapid population growth of a conservative 1.3% per annum compounded over many years. Our forecasting work also suggests that people's roles, attitudes and behaviours become increasingly important in shaping the structure and prosperity of communities the smaller the spatial scale under the microscope. Thus, our sample of places with their small populations will each find that their futures are determined by the interplay of local behaviours with the mega-trends shaping Australia in general. And businesses seeking to innovate and adapt will, in turn, be trapped to some extent by that interplay, while also recognising that truly innovative and far-sighted large-scale enterprise can rise above local conditions.As Shakespeare noted, 'brevity is the soul of wit'. To simplify and enhance this report's message, the two main parts summarise our findings, and we have placed considerable detail in extensive Appendices at the end. The latter are important in documenting the considerable thought processes shaping our analysis.

The Australian cotton industry has encountered both record droughts and significant flooding since 2005,impacting on its production and profitability. Despite these hurdles, we have achieved our goal of adding $1 billion to the cotton industry through the activities of this CRC. While valuing social and environmental benefits can be challenging, the gains we have made in these areas, added to the production benefits in areas such as water, Integrated Pest Management and processing, are substantial and have far exceeded what we set out to do.

This report is details the literature and experimental program of Miss Meredith Errington forher honours at this University. She has been awarded First Class Honours.

Final report: Automation and real time control of furrow irrigation

Management of Silverleaf whitefly in later maturing crops is complex, and growers and consultants need to manage to avoid honeydew contamination. This article focuses on management options for crops in the salvage zone (3C) of the threshold.

Reniform Nematodes (Rotylenchulus reniformis) have recently been identified in cotton in subtropicalQld for the second time since 2003/04. Reniform nematodes are an established pest in some Australian horticulture crops and have the potential to affect cotton crop productivity

The third year of the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC (Cotton CRC) has seen a transition from the start-up phase to a phase of consolidation. Much of the success of the Cotton CRC to date has been the result of the vision and capabilities of the previous CEO, Mr Guy Roth. I would like to thank Guy for his hard work with the Cotton CRC and particularly for the support and assistance provided to me through this transitional period. In addition, I would also like to congratulate the staff of the Cotton CRC for their contribution, commitment and professionalism. My key focus has been to ensure we consolidate and continue the excellent work already undertaken in the 300 current and completed projects that the Cotton CRC manages. These projects are geographically spread across the key cotton growing regions, as well as the Kimberly region in Western Australia, the Burdekin region in North Queensland and Geelong in Victoria. The clear success of the projects is due to the collaborative research and extension efforts across the twelve participant organisations, 36 affiliate organisations and external research groups. Ongoing drought has had a considerable impact, not only on cotton production, with the smallest crop area planted in Australia for 30 years, but also on the available human capital residing in the regional communities. With little or no inflow into water storages or natural flow in rivers, public attention has been focused on the use of water for irrigation in the Murray Darling Catchment. Water use remains a strong focus of the Cotton CRC and existing projects in the farm and catchment programs focus on research in this area. With the recent addition of the $5 million National Water Commission water storages project, we now have research that spans the catchment down to the farm scale, including groundwater, riparian health, deep drainage, evaporation, plant physiology and farming systems. Having a greater understanding of water use and management practices will be important to the industry given the potential uncertainties, especially in relation to climate change. Education and training continues to be an important dimension of the Cotton CRC. There are currently 38 PhD students conducting research across a broad range of projects in the industry. Additionally, the Cotton CRC supports The University of New England Cotton Production Course, the CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering Cotton Field to Fabric course based in Geelong and the new Aboriginal Employment Strategy Schools- Based Traineeship project at the Australian Cotton Research Institute, Narrabri. A primary focus for the Cotton CRC during 2007–08 has been reviewing the existing Best Management Practices (BMP) program. The Cotton CRC has contributed significantly to collaboratively support and resource the new BMP strategy for the industry. This occurs not only through our investment in research but also adoption. BMP is pivotal to providing a driving force for taking appropriate research through to best practice and then effecting practice change. The premium status of the Australian cotton crop in the global market continues to be under threat. The uptake of biotechnology and the rapid improvement of fibre quality from competitor countries are impacting on the ability of Australia’s marketers to secure a premium in the market place. Cotton germplasm producing extra long staple (ELS), bred by CSIRO, has been trialled successfully in the 2007–08 season. New elite ELS varieties are in advanced stages of production and will become available over the next three years. Existing processing technology does not allow the full utilisation of the additional length that these varieties generate. The Cotton CRC has reacted swiftly to divert resources in the Product program to address this issue and build knowledge and technology for the future. Looking ahead to the next twelve months, the Cotton CRC has recently developed several key projects that will further support extension and the uptake of research. These include the appointment of the Farming Systems Scientist (Michael Braunack) through CSIRO, our Research Economist (Janine Powell) through the NSW Department of Primary Industries and an Education Officer (Trudy Staines) through CSIRO. These positions will assist the Cotton CRC with the crucial link of taking the science and delivering it to the industry and community audiences alike. I would like to thank DIISR, the Cotton CRC’s participant and affiliate organisations, the Board of Directors, our research scientists and their teams, the extension and management team, collaborators and, importantly, the Cotton CRC staff for their support, hard work, and focus on our vision of Adding $1 billion of additional benefits to the industry and the catchments and communities in which it operates. Whilst I have had the opportunity to catch up with many people associated with the Cotton CRC, I look forward to meeting those I have not yet had the chance to meet at the upcoming Science Forum and Third Year Review in October.

Why so important to get defoliation right? How not getting defoliation right has flow on effects right down the line, from increasing costs and reducing profits to growers and poor fibre quality which affects australia’s reputation as producing some of the world’s best cotton.

Irrigators with general security water entitlements operating in the NSW Border Rivers, Gwydir, Namoi/Peel and Macquarie/Cudgegong water management areas are eligible for grants to undertake irrigation modernisation on their farms.

Spray application expert Bill Gordon tells how to best apply defoliants to get the best results from this critical operation.